Helen Clark
HANOI, Jun 18 2008 (IPS) – Doc Bernie Duff, 58, a former medic in the Vietnam War, recently led a 1,700 kilometre walk from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi to raise awareness of the problems still faced by those suffering from the effects of Agent Orange.
Vietnam resident and charity worker Duff will now head back to the U.S. with fellow walker Bob Schuessler. They plan to undertake two short walks in Michigan and outside Chicago. An awareness-raising initiative, the veteran is hopeful it will lay the financial groundwork for next year s more ambitious walk. Lacking a government permit this year, fundraising was put on the backburner and walkers paid their own way.
We re coming armed with pictures and movies, Duff told IPS. He and partner Bui Thi Bao Anh, a 28-year-old tourism consultant responsible for publicising the walk in the local press, documented the suffering of families affected by the chemical defoliant dropped by U.S. forces to deny forest cover to the enemy. He hopes to meet with senators and veterans groups. Despite journeys becoming an almost ubiquitous fundraising activity in recent years (in fact two Australians traversed Vietnam in 2005 to raise funds for the Hanoi-based charity restaurant Koto). Orange Walk Footprints from the Heart has garnered interest and sympathy worldwide, along with much interest within the country.
I ve letters from around the world, from people who ve never heard of Agent Orange. They thought it had stopped right after the war, Duff told IPS. It is a problem that has never really made it into worldwide consciousness.
Some 20 million gallons of the defoliant were used in Operation Ranch Hand . Containing dioxin, one of the most poisonous substances humanity has yet invented, it damaged more than foliage.
Cancers, skin diseases and birth defects have been linked to the substance. The U.S. has offered compensation to its veterans for these afflictions but on Feb. 22, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the case of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims seeking compensation from chemical manufacturers Dow and Monsanto. The decision was called erroneous and unjust by the Vietnam Bar.
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Having passed into the water system and thence into food such as fish and waterfowl, Agent Orange very much remains where it was dropped in the south. In the north problems are less common but still exist children of veterans who fought in the south can still suffer from spina bifida, water on the brain and gross, nightmarish malformations or mental retardation. Many die early.
One entry in Duff s blog concerned a father and his two remaining daughters, both affected. Twelve other family members had perished. The Vietnamese government estimates some four million people have been affected.
My feeling is that because the United States didn t come out as a victorious winner, they turned their backs, said Duff, who sees his country s resistance in emotional not financial terms. Others are more forgiving.
At the grand finale of the walk at the Peace Village, an Agent Orange rehabilitation centre, on Jun. 1 International Children s Day Nguyen Thi Thuong Van, 24, said, We lost [the court case] but we ll win another way. We have the love from the world, that s the way we ll win.
She and her older sister Thao flew from HCMC to join the ceremonial last few kilometres from central Hoan Kiem Lake to the outer suburbs. Speaking inside the physiotherapy ward, crowded with people eager to meet the young patients, she continued, For young people like me, we ve always heard about Agent Orange but we couldn t imagine how serious it is it s not very visible.
Nearby three-year-old Son underwent physiotherapy, the nurse pedalling his chubby legs clad in white Spiderman shorts as he lay back, uncomprehending. Unable to move by himself he needs exercise otherwise his limbs will atrophy. He is one of the luckier children. Many affected children are doomed to lives of poverty and early death, a terrible strain on already poor families.
Despite little foreign knowledge of Agent Orange, and varying coverage in the state-controlled media, the walk has been widely covered and well-received in Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Phuong Lien, who has worked for VTV4 in the International Programme Department, sees Doc Bernie Duff s journey as significant. This is such a charitable act, the largest ever walk a group of people has done. Bernie is a veteran, he suffers the pain himself he sympathises with those who suffer, she says. The coverage given the group of orange shirted walkers resulted in cheers, offers of food by people and invitations by police into the local bia [beer] joints.
Duff is not the only returned veteran to aid the progeny of those he once fought. George Mizo returned to Vietnam and helped found the Friendship Village, another rehabilitation centre for the Agent Orange-affected. It celebrated its tenth anniversary on Mar. 18.
Though when returning, Duff was amazed at the welcome he received, not every Vietnamese has forgotten the war. Some people here are still angry about the war, Bao Anh told IPS at the Peace Village, They say, our kids are like this because of the Americans .
This is a battle we [the world] should be fighting together. These kids never chose to fight, Duff added.